The Minnesota secretary of state who oversaw the senatorial recount that put Al Franken into office slammed a WND investigation into his background as “political attacks” and “horse pucky.”

WND had reported Mark Ritchie was listed by the Communist Party USA as an official “friend.” He also attended a confidential meeting of the organization, according to the communist party’s own correspondence.

That followed WND’s earlier report that Ritchie was funded – and apparently continues to be supported – by a “Who’s who” of the radical left.

He counts among his campaign donors members of the Democratic Socialists of America, founders of the socialist New Party, members of the Communist Party USA, or CPUSA, and even a former associate of the Weatherman domestic terrorist group founded by Bill Ayers.

Personalities from several George Soros-funded think tanks and the terrorist-supporting Code Pink also show up on Ritchie’s donor list.

Ritchie was grilled by local talk show host Chris Baker about the WND report detailing the Communist Party USA correspondence which listed Ritchie as a friend.

“That’s part of entertainment,” responded Ritchie. “But Chris, the Minnesota constitution lays out the job of the secretary of state. The Minnesota voters elected me strongly, and no amount of political attacks or garbage attacks or lies or smears or that kind of thing changes the Minnesota constitution or the strong voice of the Minnesota people.”

Ritchie, however, did not directly address his alleged association with the Community Party USA.

“So it would be safe to say this is all a big pile of hewey?” asked Baker.

Ritchie retorted: “Political attacks. In high school we called it horse pucky.”

The documents, labeled “Not for publication” were official summaries of a CPUSA “farm meeting” in Minneapolis on Dec. 5, 1999.

Relates the CPUSA document: “Mark Ritchie, a non-party friend, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Institute on Trade and Agricultural Policy, had chaired the farm-agriculture rally of over 5,000 people in Seattle. He opened our meeting with a report on Seattle and gave us an in-depth analysis of the current farm crisis. He spent the entire morning session with us.”

The document went on to summarize Ritchie’s address to the closed-door Communist Party meeting.

“His main points: The powerful new coalition in Seattle based on farmers-labor-environmental-religious and other human rights organizations ‘stopped the WTO. It was a tremendous victory,’” the report said.

At the time, Ritchie was one of the main leaders of controversial mass riots against the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of global trade negotiations. Some reports claimed rioters used violence against police.

Ritchie won a second term last month. He currently is overseeing another recount, this time in the gubernatorial race between Democrat Mark Dayton and Republican Tom Emmer. According to the current count, Dayton leads Emmer by 9,000 votes.

Ritchie filed court papers asking the state to not call for a recount, but the state’s Supreme Court ruled the recount will commence.

At issue is how counties performed an election night task known as reconciliation: Some counties count the number of signatures on voting rosters, while others tally the receipts handed to voters in order to get a ballot.

Meanwhile, a review of donors to Ritchie’s 2006 and 2010 campaigns found a shocking list of radicals that reads like a “Who’s who” of the far-left world. And he was a beneficiary of the George Soros-funded Secretary of State project.

Jeff Blum, a former supporter of the Weathermen domestic terrorist group.

Heather Booth, a founder of the Midwest Academy, which has trained thousands of “community activists” in the tactics of radical organizer Saul Alinsky. WND previously reported the executive director of Booth’s group was part of the team that developed and delivered a group of volunteers for President Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Paul Booth, a member of Democratic Socialists of America.

Cynthia Brown, a vice president for education policy at the Soros-funded Center for American Progress.

Dan Cantor, a co-founder of the socialist New Party, now leader of New York’s ACORN and the socialist and communist-dominated Working Families Party.

Dan Carol, a member of the Soros-funded Tides Center board, also a founder of the Apollo Alliance, which is led by a slew of radicals, including former Weatherman terrorist Jeff Jones and Obama’s former “green jobs” adviser and avowed communist Van Jones.

Doris Marquit, a veteran leader of the Minnesota Communist Party USA.

Erwin Marquit, a veteran leader of the Minnesota Communist Party USA, whose wife is Doris Marquit.

And Max Palevsky, a former trustee of the Marxist-oriented, Soros-funded Institute for Policy Studies.

Radicals who supported Ritchie’s 2010 campaign included:

Jodie Evans, leader of the radical “Code Pink,” which has sided with the Taliban and Saddam Hussein and has led marches in support of Hamas in Gaza. She is also a member of board of trustees of the Marxist-oriented, Soros-funded Institute for Policy Studies.

Margery Tabankin, an Alinsky-trained former member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society from which the Weatherman terrorist group splintered.

Patricia Bauman, a member of the Soros-funded, pro-Palestinian J Street Advisory Council.